Katie Come Home Fund! -

On August 19, the morning after our last Twitch stream, I woke to Katie's alarm going off in the bathroom at 7:30. At 7:34, I realized something was wrong when she didn't turn it off or respond to my shouts.

After a couple minutes messing with the locked door (a long held habit we'd had words over in the past), I burst into the bathroom and came upon her lifeless body, face down in the dress she wore in the night before, blue and purple. In the Army I'd trained as a first responder, so I knew I needed to perform chest compressions and emergency breathing immediately.

Besides the pain, and stress, and terror really, of that morning, I distinctly recall the triumphant feeling when she started taking shallow breaths without my assistance. My wife was still alive.

The 911 operator advised me to keep breathing for her. Even so, Katie still hadn't recovered consciousness by the time the paramedics arrived. As I explained my rude awakening to them, one of the medics hung his head while he told me she had been down too long not to have suffered severe brain injury.

After some time, the hospital determined that she'd had what amounted to a stroke, made much worse by her compromised breathing when she collapsed. And the paramedics insight proved true.

Katie lay comatose for over 2 weeks. By the grace of God, she did eventually open her eyes again. At first, eyes just open, unfocused, unblinking, no one home. The hospital neurologist told us that's as far as most patients go with such comprehensive brain injury.

That was when the terror truely set in for me. I grieved for my wife. Such a feeling of loss I'd never wish on anyone. Somehow, despite recommendations to let her go, that even if she woke, she'd have no quality of life, over the days, then weeks, Katie started coming back to us.

The recovery she's made so far is nothing short of a miracle. She can now speak a few whispered words at a time, but Katie's there for sure. She's beating the odds, but her road to recovery will be long, and we're still holding on to hope and doing all we can to help her get there.

Over the last 9 months so many of you have offered help and assistance, and I have been so focused on the day by day. Just being there each day for Katie and our, now 3 year old daughter Ella, that I haven't accepted much of anything. I'm still struggling to find a new rhythm for our family, wading through medical beauracracy, but I see now that I cannot shoulder everything alone.

Thank you to all the friends and family, to everyone who's been there for us so far. I've been working to find a house that can accommodate her, and a part time nursing staff to help with her care. I want so badly for her to see her baby grow. Please, if you can, donate to help our Katie come home.